Friday, September 17, 2010

Fall in Alaska

Hello All,

The Fall colors here in Chickaloon are at their peak. A sure sign summer has come and gone. I guess the only way to explain what happened to our Alaskan summer is "Time flys when you are having fun!"
Kathi and I have had a great if a bit wet summer guiding season. Our guided trips took us from camping with the big brown bears of Katmai in southwest Alaska to watching the Caribou migration in Gates of the Arctic National Park north of the arctic circle and many places in between. We feel lucky to have Alaska as our playground and our workplace.
Now with cool mornings and a frosting of new snow up high it's time to get ready for what I hope will be a real Alaskan winter. Plenty of snow with a good mix of clear and really cold to set up the trails and keep it interesting. As all the vets know I will be sending out my by now infamous trail reports as soon as the trail grapevine sends them to me. There may be terms like "knee deep river wide overflow", open water and glare ice in the gorge", "they blew the trail up so bad you can hide a volkswagen in the craters" . The conditions reported from The Trail on any given day may or may not exist during the race but you never know. Before all of the "From the Trail" reports begin here is a link to the latest attempt to "urbanize / civilize" The Trail. http://www.alaskanewspapers.com/pdf/td.pdf
Just as every year around this time we begin looking forward to seeing all of you both local and from around the world, old friends and new. We have another good field of competitors for the 2011 race which includes a tough group of trail hardened veterans and a strong field of rookies. February seems a long way off right now but I suspect just like summer that time will fly by and race time will be here before we know it. I will be on the trail this year helping put in the trail over Rainy Pass and through the Dalzel Gorge. I should see most of you somewhere on the trail. Kathi will be race central keeping friends and fans up to date with your progress from a location yet to be decided. She will get to see all of you at the pre race and starting line and hopefully from somewhere on the trail.
As always if any of you have questions don't hesitate to ask.
We hope all of you have a colorful fall and even better winter.
Bill & Kathi